Drishtipat

Diaspora philanthropy

Drishtipat raises funds for various philanthropic projects focused on the marginalised people in Bangladesh. Drishtipat also works to empower and enable the underprivileged and marginalized segment of the society and individuals living on social and economic poverty so that they can exercise the most basic human rights with dignity, opportunity and hope. Established in 2001, Drishtipat has quickly managed to establish itself as the biggest secular philanthropic organisation in the Bangladeshi diaspora. Started from a single website and one man effort, Drishtipat has mobilized quickly over the years and has grown into having nine chapters in five countries with more than 5000 members and donors. Since its inception, Drishtipat has so far successfully completed numerous campaigns, many petitions and appeals. Its notable campaigns include, Women of 1971 Campaign, Arsenic Project Campaign, the Tipu Sultan Campaign, Campaign for Survivors of Acid Violence, Ushnota and the Cheye Dekho Campaign. Drishtipat recently completed via the United Bangladesh Appeal one of the biggest fund raising projects for the victims of Cyclone Sidr through a compensation fund for the victims.

Advocacy

Advocacy and policy research is key part of Drishtipat. Drishtipat has no party affiliation but believes on forward looking and progressive agenda based on equal rights for all Bangladeshis regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation. Drishtipat is a non-profit, non-partisan, volunteer organisation, built up of membership of young people inside Bangladesh and the global Diaspora <http://www.drishtipat.org>. It mobilizes the younger segment of society and collectively serves as advocates for the poor and the discriminated and launches awareness campaigns and educational projects to help leaders make informed decisions that eradicate poverty, injustice and discrimination. It assesses and develops action plans in areas of concern that need activism for protection of the affected or improvement of the quality of life. Areas of advocacy and action include natural disasters, violation of human rights, cultural freedom, right to civil liberties, access to justice against crimes against a group of people or individuals by any agency, poverty, environment or any form of violation of foundational and contingent human rights

Drishtipat works towards building human and economic rights for all citizens of Bangladesh. Drishtipat uses digital technology, including blogging, podcast, vlogging, online chat, electronic publications, etc. to organise and network between the global Diaspora and those living and working in Bangladesh. Drishtipat members have written numerous opinion essays for publications as diverse as Daily Star, New Age, Prothom Alo, Shamokal, Forum, Foreign Policy (US), Guardian (UK), etc. Drishtipat members have also appeared on RTV, ATN, CNN, and BBC to discuss matters of human rights. Its forthcoming book will be a compendium of all Drishtipat essays written in the run-up to Election 2008.

Recently Drishtipat Writers' Collective covered the electoral process extensively and produced over 20 op-eds leading up to the election arguing for a fair election for all. Some of the analytical reports generated front page headlines. Post election, Drishtipat members got wide national and international coverage. Analysing the election results, Executive Director Asif Saleh, he stated the victory of the winningAwami League party was a victory 'for a party that believes in secularism' and that the Bangladeshi people 'have abandoned the parties that ran a fear mongering campaign, used religion in politics' [1]. He was also featured in a CNN interview, as an expert on the region, covering the election. [2].

Political controversy

In 2005 the then Bangladeshi Minister of Law Moudud Ahmed of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who was later convicted for corruption under the military regime [3], accused 'a New York-based expatriate organisation' of partisanship and propaganda against Bangladesh [4] regarding an Action Alert sent following the assassination of former Awami League minister Shah AMS Kibria. The Minister accused unnamed parties defeated in the 2001 general elections, in which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party emerged victorious, of trying to 'destroy the country’s image through malicious propaganda in a planned and motivated way'[5]. The Bangladeshi government found this organisation's actions to be 'alarming' and 'mysterious'. Drishtipat responded to this allegation by stating that sending an appeal for action on human rights abuse cases is part of the practice of all human rights organisations and that Drishtipat has done that under both AL and BNP administration. It also again stated that the organisation was not affiliated with any party. A Drishtipat Blog article described Mr. Ahmed as a 'shameless political chameleon' [6].